The present invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of Styrax japonicus, or weeping Japanese snowbell, that is grown for use as a small tree. It is known botanically as Styrax japonicus and will be referred to hereinafter by the cultivar name ‘JLWEEPING’. The plant was discovered as a seedling of unknown parentage growing with Styrax japonicus seedlings in a liner bed row in the JLPN nursery in Salem, Oreg.
The new variety is distinguished from known Japanese snowbell varieties because of the following combination of characteristics: the growth habit is weeping in form and differs significantly from the species which is rounded to broad-rounded with a horizontal branching appearance. While its shape is similar to another weeping cultivar, ‘Fragrant Fountains’, U.S. Pat. No. 19,664, it forms pink flowers which are slightly fragrant. Additionally, it forms leaves which are slightly larger in length and width, are darker green and glossy, and whose undersides have pubescence only along the veins.
Plants of the new variety have been asexually reproduced in Salem, Oreg., USA, through the use of softwood cuttings or graftings on Styrax japonicus understock. The characteristics of the new variety have been found to be strictly transmittable by such asexual repropagation, and the new cultivar reliably reproduces in a true to type manner from one generation to another.